Dinner and a Movie: Halloween Movie Picks

Sometime back in the Pleistocene, I made a little horror movie called "Down In The Cellar". It won first place, Senior Division, in the Maine Student Film and Video Festival. The irony of this is that I don't really like horror movies. I like my scary movies with a twist of humor. That said, my 2009 Halloween Movie List isn't going to appeal to everyone but I'm putting it out there because there may be titles that you wouldn't have thought of. We're planning our own little Halloween Dinner and a Movie Marathon. The food isn't specific to any one movie, but Martha has a great variety of spooky meals that we're using.

On the menu is Ghoulada Punch, Spicy Bat Wings, Decomposed Salad and Mashed Boo-tatos. We'll top that off with Tombstone Cupcakes because I've been dying (no pun intended) to make these crazy desserts.

Halloween Movies 2009

• Wallace and Grommet: Curse of the Were Rabbit - Not very scary but I figure this will be Buttercup's first Halloween Movie.
• Nightmare Before Christmas - Slightly scarier than Curse of the Were Rabbit, but spooky animated fun for older kids.
  
• Ghostbusters - the classic ghost comedy.
  
• Beetlejuice - It's showtime! Michael Keaton at his zany best.
  
• Addams Family - Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and little Christina Ricci.
• The Mummy - either the original with Boris Karloff or the 1999 remake with Brendan Frasier
  
• Lost Boys - One of my favorites from my high school years
• Vamp - Grace Jones as a stripper vampire. Full of cheesy goodness.
• The Frighteners - Before Peter Jackson gained fame with Lord of the Rings, he made horror movies like this great ghost story.
  
• Fright Night - 80's vampire goodness
  
• Underworld - Vampires vs werewolves. Action goodness.
  
• Shaun of the Dead - I like my zombie movies to be funny with happy endings. You know. Happy for zombie movies.
  
• Sleepy Hallow - My favorite Johnny Depp movie.
• Jeepers Creepers - Much better than I expected, probably the scariest movie on the list and full of great Cthulian style. Such a shame they made a Jeepers Creepers 2.

There are a couple of great TV shows that are wonderfully spooky. Ghost Hunters has done some shiver-up-the-spine shows and the first season of Supernatural was amazingly creepy.

The Bread Search Is Over

For the last 20 years, I've been in search of the perfect bread recipe. For me, this means a loaf that is crusty on the outside, airy and light on the inside and possessing a flavor that isn't quite sourdough, but not terribly yeasty either. You know, the kind of bread you can only get from bakeries like Standard Baking or Big Sky or When Pigs Fly.

I've bought many gadgets over the years to help in this quest - special pans, stones, and even my beloved bread machine. It turns out that none of them were necessary. Oh sure, I've made delicious loaves with these things but that bread I've looked for all these years needs nothing more than a hot oven and an enameled dutch oven. It doesn't even require kneading. Sounds impossible, right? I was skeptical too until I gave it a try.

Baker Jim Lahey has developed a method of bread baking that relies on time rather than a lot of yeast and kneading to develop the gluten that makes great bread. He also preheats a covered dutch oven to 475 and bakes his bread in that. The whole process is so remarkably simple and effortless. He has written a book called My Bread which gives various recipes, but you can view the basic recipe here. The ingredient list is small; just flour, water, salt and yeast. The process is simple and the instructions he provides are clear and perfectly illustrated. Give it a try and be shocked at how good it is.

Got your Halloween CD mix ready?

I love holiday music and spend way more time than I probably should (what with costumes still to make and all) on making iPod mixes.

Here's my list of Halloween tunes, even if you weren't curious. For your convenience, I've dug around and linked to places where you can hear what the song is.

Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting
Concrete Blonde - Tomorrow, Wendy
M.C. Hammer - Addam's Family Groove
Atlanta Rhythm Section - Spooky
The Specials - Ghost Town
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Charlie Daniel's Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Alice Cooper - Feed My Frankenstein
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper
Roky Erickson - Night of the Vampire
Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters
Gorillaz - Dracula
Superdrag - Do The Vampire
Rockwell - Who's Watching Me
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil
INXS - Devil Inside
John Fogerty - Bad Moon Rising
Danny Elfman - This Is Halloween
Beck - Devil's Haircut
Peter, Paul, and Mary - Three Ravens
Christopher Walken - The Raven
Mediaeval Baebes - Spiriti
Heather Dale - Mordred's Lullaby
Gnarls Barkley - The Boogie Monster
Jonathan Coulton - RE: Your Brains
Michael Jackson - Thriller
The Atomic Fireballs - Man With The Hex
Ministry - Everyday Is Halloween
Misfits - Monster Mash
Mel Torme - Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives (not the best recording)
Mercury Theater - War of the Worlds Radio Play (download for Free!)
Mercury Theater - Dracula Radio Play (also download for Free!)

Autumn Trail Mix

I'm starting to feel the pinch. Halloween is 16 days away and I still have lots of costuming to work on, not to mention the pinata head for this year's party at the store. All this work requires a good snack, so I whipped up a batch of my Autumn Trail Mix for when I need a quick pick-up.

Autumn Trail Mix
Husband has allergies to tree nuts, although now that I think about it, peanuts would be pretty good tossed into the mix. Prior to the nut allergy, I would have added almonds. Feel free to add or exchange at your whim. This would also make an extravagant breakfast granola with the addition of milk and perhaps a cup of pumpkin latte.

• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbs maple syrup (use the real stuff. The fakie kind doesn't have the same flavor when cooked)
• 2 tbs butter, melted
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt to taste
• 3 cups shelled raw pumpkin seeds (sometimes called pepitas)
• 1 cups rolled oats
• 1/3 cup candied ginger, cut into 1/4 inch size pieces
• 6oz pack of dried cranberries (try dried apples or raisins if you aren't fond of cranberry)
• 12 oz of your favorite chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300. Coat a baking pan with cooking spray or brush a little vegetable oil over the surface. Add pumpkin seeds and oats (and nuts, if you're adding them) and bake for about 25 minutes until the oats are just toasted. Reset your oven for 350.

Mix the cider, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, spices and salt together. Add the now toasted pumpkin seeds and oats and stir to coat. Place back on the baking tray and cook for about 30 more minutes, stirring the mix halfway through baking. Your mix may be lightly sticky, but it shouldn't be gooey.

Let the oats and pumpkin seeds cool completely, then toss with the ginger, dried fruit and chocolate chips. Put in a sealable container and grab handfuls or package in zipper baggies to grab and go.

Halloween Centerpiece

So, a few posts ago, I mentioned that you could build a centerpiece out of dead stuff lying around in your yard or local obliging field. This is the arrangement that I came up with. I'm quite pleased.

Flower arranging isn't something I've had a lot of practice with. I actually put this together, thought about it for a while, and pulled it apart to start over. My first attempt was just sort of thrown together. Dried stems went anywhere in random patterns. It looked ok, but I wanted something a little more polished and symmetrical. I should have taken pictures of the process, but I think I can talk you through how to make a similar arrangement without them. Ready? Here we go.

Tools and Bits List

• a wide mouth flower pot
• a piece of floral foam
• floral wire
• floral tape
• wire cutters
• kitchen scissors for cutting stems
• Spanish moss
• 3 or 4 handfuls of colorful, fallen leaves
• a couple of handfuls of Iris seed pods or the equivalent (something medium length, sturdy and dark)
• a handful of Black-eyed Susan pods or the equivalent (something spindly, tall and dark)
• a handful of dried Queen Anne's Lace blooms or the equivalent (something lacy, light colored and with bulk)
• a handful of Balloon flower pods or the equivalent (something light colored, tall and shaped different from the rest)

A Note On The Flowers: My flowers of choice are readily available in many yards and fields in the northeast US. Your choices may vary. If you don't have access to these flowers, keep in mind the equivalencies when you go looking. You want a variety of colors (or shades of brown in this case) and shapes. Should you go browsing for interesting dried plants at your local abandoned parking lot or under the power lines, keep in mind that you want four different varieties of plants - no more, no less. Grasses and branches can be just as creepy and beautiful as flower pods.

Cut the stems as long as possible - it's easier to make them shorter at home. Take 4 or 5 more stems than you think you need - it's easier to compost the leftovers than to have to go back to get more. Go for stuff that is quite dry - plants that still have some moisture invite mold and wilting.

Finally, and most importantly, NEVER EVER cut flowers - even dead flowers - from someone's yard without permission. It's a simple enough thing to knock on someone's door and say "Do you mind if I cut some of your dead stems here? I'm working on a Fall Bouquet." Courtesy and respect in all things, people.

What You Do: Before we start arranging flowers, we need to make what I'm going to call Leaf Clusters. I think I saw this on Martha last Fall, but I'm unable to find the tutorial now. What you do is cut a 4 inch piece of wire. Take 5 or 6 leaves clustered together by their stems and use the floral tape to secure them tightly to one end the wire. When you're done, it should look kind of like a leaf dart: one end has a tightly grouped bunch of colorful leaves and the other end is bare wire. I'm happy to take some pictures if anyone is confused. Now that you have one, make about 25 or 30 more. This is a good activity for while you're in front of the TV or for your kids to do.

Make sure your piece of green foam fits into your flower pot. If it doesn't, use your scissors and trim it to fit. Even if you're working with different plants, the principal is basically the same. We're going to be working in concentric circles, putting the tallest plants in the center and the shorter ones out at the edge.

Starting with your tall Black-eyed Susans, arrange the stems in the center. Keep them fairly close together. Around the Black-eyed Susans, put the balloon flower pods. Turn your piece frequently to make sure it looks even and attractive from all sides. The next circle of flowers is the Queen Anne's Lace, followed by the Iris pods angled low and on the outside.

Try to keep all your stems on the top of the floral foam. Don't hesitate to pull something out and place it somewhere else if it isn't working. Also, feel free to shorten stems, but try to keep each type of plant the same lenth (e.g. your Iris stems are all about 12 inches, your Black-eyed Susans are all 24 inches).

Your arrangement should look pleasant to you from all sides. Now, we fill in the base with our leaf clusters. Carefully poke them into the floral foam beneath and between the stems until the base is hidden with leaves. Use the dried Spanish moss to support the foam in the pot and to hide the bottom part of the foam.

Voila! Free centerpiece that will last all October.

Mmmm... Fall days

Yesterday, I finished stacking the last cord of dry wood into the garage. Doesn't it look nice? I thought so too until I turned around and took a look at the 3 cords of green wood that now needs to get stacked before the snow flies. *Sigh*

It's ok though, because yesterday was a gorgeous fall day. The neighbors had their wood stove going, which is one of my all-time favorite smells. It wasn't too windy, so I didn't have to dive for shelter from a barrage of acorns at every breeze. Best of all, October 11 or 12 is the day that the sun is low enough to cause rainbows from the crystal in the mudroom window.

Mmm. Woodsmoke and Rainbows.

Go ahead and linger on this moment of Autumnal relaxation. I gotta get back to work on stacking wood and Halloween costumes.

Spooky Halloween Curtains

Every year, I try to add one or two new pieces to my collection of Halloween decorations. This year, I made creepy curtains for the dining room. The idea comes from two separate Martha projects - moth eaten curtains and Gothic curtains. I think the two pieces look best when put together and I made a couple of adjustments based on the materials at my disposal. It cost me around $15 to do all three windows, but it could cost you less depending on what you have at hand.

Tool & Bits for 3 Windows

• about 10 yards (or two 6x6 yard packages) of cheap cheesecloth
• 3 spring tension curtain rods
• 3 pieces of black foam board (I think my pieces were 20"x24")
  
• this template
• tape (Scotch tape for the template and black duct or electrical tape for the curtains)
• scissors
• ruler
• craft knife
• sewing machine
• pot of strong brewed black tea
• spraybottle

Start with the moth eaten curtains. I used about 3 yards of cheesecloth for each curtain. Feel free to make them longer if it suits your taste. I have dog/kid/cat/husband to contend with. Turn down the top inch of the cheesecloth and stitch it in place to form a pocket for the curtain rod. I used black thread so that I could see where the pocket was when doing the next step.

Twist the cheesecloth and loop it back on itself, like you were twisting a skein of yarn. Using your scissors, cut small holes in the fabric, being careful not to cut the curtain rod pocket. Don't make the holes too big at this stage since you'll make them bigger in a minute.

Untwist the cheesecloth and slide the curtain rod into the pocket. Hang the curtain in your window according to the directions on the curtain rod package. The should look similar to the first picture below. Using the blade of your scissors, start pulling at the holes you cut to stretch and tear them and make them bigger. You can also get some great holes by holding the cheesecloth taught and stabbing and dragging the blade of your scissors at spots where you think a hole would look good. Fiddle with your curtain until you are pleased with the effect.

The Gothic curtains will take a little more math. The black foam board isn't big enough to do each curtain as one piece. I opted to to it in three pieces - one 10" wide piece to go across the top and two narrow pieces for the sides.

I started by piecing together the top part of the template. You'll have to make it a bit smaller by overlapping the template pieces. If your foam board is 20" wide, you can get two top sections by making the template 10" wide.

You can see from my picture that I taped together more pieces than I needed to. To save yourself time, divine your foam board in half lengthwise and then trace the pointy pattern on the outside edges. Use your craft knife to cut these out - it will be easier than if you try to cut them out with scissors.

Now cut out the long narrow sections. If, like me, you needed to make the top part narrower, you'll need to make the bottom pieces the same width as the ends of the top part so that they match up properly. Confused? Me too. Check out the first photo in this post and I think you'll see what I mean.

You can get quite a few of the narrow pieces cut from one piece of foam board, provided you use care when tracing the pattern. It's important to note, that you'll need a right and left side for each curtain, so once you've traced the narrow part one way, flip the template over and trace the opposite piece.

With all your pieces cut out, tape them together using the black duct tape or electrical tape (that will blend the seam). Hang them in your window, in front of your moth-eaten curtains with looped pieces of tape or mounting putty.

Now cue the spooky music and revel in the Halloween-y atmosphere.

Decorating for Halloween On A Budget

October is here and that means it's time to decorate for Halloween! My mom always put up fun decorations for the holidays and it's a tradition I plan to continue for my little Buttercup. As you can see, the mantle is filled with lots of spooky things that I've slowly been collecting over the years . Every year, I try to add one or two new pieces to the collection. Of course, the best time to shop for decorations is at the end of October when all the store are trying to get ready for Thanksgiving. This won't help you if you haven't got any decorations for this year though. What to do if you don't want to spend a fortune? I advocate for the homegrown whenever possible.

Start by poking about in your yard/local obliging abandoned field. Acorns, fallen leaves, and dead twigs are all great choices for centerpieces. The pumpkins are from my garden (haven't they ripened up nicely?) and I think I'm going to go clip some of the way-dead iris pods to create a centerpiece for the dining room. All free!

Next, take $5 or $10 and head over to your local Goodwill/Thrift Shop/Dollar Store and poke about in their dishware section. You'd be amazed at the glassware and vases and things you can get for next to nothing. The trick with the thrift store angle is that you need to go in at least once a week since new stuff comes in all the time. Silver plated stuff tarnishes to a lovely spooky black and clear glass pieces can be re-used for other holidays as well. Try to get an assortment of sizes. Large jars can be used to hold bouquets of your dead pods & twigs. Shallow flat bowls are great for holding acorns and leaves. Container type jars earn their keep by holding Halloween candy. Generally, glassware and dishes at our local Goodwill Stores in Maine run about $.50- $1 each but don't spend all your money here today. We have other supplies to pick up.

After you've scoped out the dishware section, check to see what they have for candles. The dollar stores often have cheap, white pillar candles and they may have some in red or black candles. Also, consider going for dark blue, green or purple candles. While these colors may not scream Halloween, you can get longer play out of them by working them into a harvest display to last until Thanksgiving. Keep an eye out for basic candle holders and small dishes that can be used to catch wax.

Next, head for your local Target/Walmart/Craft store and pick up a bag or two of Halloween treats like candy corn and licorice twists and a sheet or two of black poster board. The treats are around $1.75 a bag and the paper will cost you a couple of bucks.

Assuming that you have things like scissors or X-acto knives, glue and tape at home, you are now in possession of all the materials you need to make some spooky decor.

Starting with the black poster board, Martha has tons of templates for things like these mice (great for stairs and windows), ominous curtains (one of this year's scheduled projects), fluttering bats in your lampshade or check out Tried & True's creepy shadow zombies. If you are a scrapbooker, you may have some velum, which means you can make these great lanterns. They look cool even if you can't afford the light for the inside.

Since we have the computer on, it's time to put your printer to work. Again, Martha has these great wine labels that can be used on bottles (empty or full) that you may already have. For more lethal concoctions, she's also got great poison-style labels for cocktail hour. She's also got these labels for your candy jars, but I much prefer these outstanding labels from Love Manor.

I bodged together the label for the pickled crocodile teeth, but the other two are modified versions of Johnny's designs. I took the snake out of the Poisonous Snakes label and changed the Witchhazel label to something more fitting for the little pumpkin candies. I just cut them out and glued them to some of my cheap-o jars with a little bit of washable glue stick. When Halloween is done, a quick soak and scrub will get them ready for the next holiday. Click on the image below to save the higher res versions for your own jars.

Finally, take your leaves and branches and dead flower pods and things and arrange them in your remaining jars. If you didn't pick up any jars at the Goodwill, hang onto food jars (tomato sauce jars work well) and use them for your spooky bouquets or jars of poison treats. Even things like soup tins with their labels removed can turn into great containers for decorating. Leave the tins outside and let them rust up a bit. Just remember to use care when handling them later. No one wants Halloween fun to turn into a truly scary case of lockjaw.

Feeling more in the Halloween spirit? Excellent! When we get closer to the end of the month, start checking out some of the sales on holiday decorations. Pick up a piece or two and in no time, you'll have a host of props to make your home ready for the trick or treaters!

Fall Cleaning!

That's right, Fall cleaning. Winter is just too long to live in a messy house for 6 months and who wants to stay inside to clean on those beautiful Spring days?

Of course, part of Fall cleaning is getting the inside of the house in order. Check out Organized Home for a great Fall Cleaning Chore Checklist and these cleaner recipes made primarily with ingredients in the kitchen. In my home, I love the smell of peppermint, so I mix up an extra-large spray bottle of my own all-purpose cleaner for Fall Cleaning.

Chris' All-Purpose Cleaner

• 1/2 c distilled white vinegar
• 1 c hot water
• 1/8 tsp peppermint castile soap
• 10 drops peppermint essential oil

Mix ingredients together and put into a small spray bottle. Shake well before using.

And once my house is clean, I'm hoping this homekeeping schedule helps keep it that way through the long, cold months.

Fall cleaning doesn't stop inside the house. There's a ton of work to be done out in the garden now to make spring much more enjoyable. Having a checklist of tasks can keep the work organized and efficient. Check out this list of fall garden tasks for projects you need to tackle before winter. Gardener's Supply has an interesting article about fall mulching. Finally, North Country Public Radio has a segment about garden care after your first hard frost. It'll be here, before we know it.

Hogwarts: A History - The Clothbound Tutorial

I finished my little Buttercup's Halloween costume last week, but I'm a huge fan of props. I think they add a level of authenticity and detail to costumes so naturally, I had to make something for her to promptly lose accent her outfit. Since Hermione is always referencing the book Hogwarts: A History, I figured I'd make her a clothbound version. It seemed safer than giving her a wand.

The book is made up of four "pages". The first page is peek-a-boo with the founders. The center spread is an embroidered map of the Hogwarts grounds done in an assortment of fibers for tactile interest. The last page is the Hogwarts crest and motto and a bit of text. The cover has hinges that close the book with Velcro. The cover is padded for extra thickness and the pages have a plastic bag insert to make them crinkle.

I started with a quick layout of the Hogwarts grounds based on these sketches. I did this on a piece of unbleached muslin since the color is a little like old parchment. The embroidery portion took the longest to finish and I tried to make sure there were some interesting fibers worked into the piece. Check out scrapbooking supplies for products like Adornaments or raid your knitting/crochet stash for thin but fluffy, bumpy and/or shiny yarns.

If embroidery just ain't your bag, you could use fabric markers and draw your map onto your middle pages. Make your map as elaborate or simple as you like.

I included a spider, a unicorn and a Ford Anglia in the forest and a squid in the lake. There are many other creatures and features of Hogwarts that you could add, not to mention a bevy of decorative embroidery stitches. I wanted to finish before Christmas, so I didn't get too crazy with either the stitches I used or the detail in the pictures.

To further save time, the remaining two pages of the book are done with images from the Interweb and printable iron-on transfers that were leftover from the Hogwarts robe. I used pictures of the founders and this logo for Hogwarts.

I wanted to make the inside pages crinkly since Buttercup loves things that crinkle and, you know, paper is crinkly. I cut a piece of a plastic grocery bag the same size as the inside pages. To assemble them, place the right sides of the pages together, then put the plastic piece on top and pin the whole business to keep it from sliding about when you're sewing. You want to put the plastic piece on the top and not between the pages since you want it to be on the inside when you flip it. Clear as mud? Excellent.

Sew around the edges of the fabric, one quarter to one half inch away from your images, depending on how much whitespace you want on your finished pages.

I left the center two inches of a short side open (see on the left side of this picture? There is a vertical pin between two horizontal pins?) so that I could turn the piece right-side-out, but so that the corners of the piece were neatly stitched. I also trimmed the seams and clipped the corners, otherwise, the corners and edges get really bulky when the piece is flipped.

Turn your pages right side out and stitch up the open side. I pressed the piece again using medium-low heat and making sure not to iron on the transfer directly. You are now in posession of your center pages.

I went a little further with my inside pages by adding a peek-a-boo element to the founders page. Buttercup loves playing peek-a-boo and little people hiding behind bits of cloth keeps her entertained. Again, I wanted to add texture to the book, so rather than hem the sides, I pulled threads to create fringe.

I used a bit of red embroidery thread and quickly stitched the yellow fabric flaps over each of the founders. You can stitch through the transfer, although I recommend using a sharp needle. I actually broke a needle trying to stich through the transfer without crushing the transfer too much.

After I got all the fabric squares sewn on, it occured to me that I could have used house colors for the fabric and threads. The red and gold for Gryffindor, green and silver for Slytherin, yellow and black for Hufflepuff and blue and bronze for Ravenclaw. I'm still considering going back and changing this page. Maybe after the other costumes are done.

The cover is done with brown stretch velvet, batting and fusable interfacing. I started by tracing the inside pages onto a piece of fusable interfacing. This gave me an idea of how big my cover should be. I wanted the cover to be slightly larger than the inside pages, so I added about 3/4 inch to each side of the cover, beyond the marked line on the interfacing. This gave me the dimensions for the velvet.

After cutting out two pieces of velvet to match the interfacing, I ironed the pieces together following the directions on the interfacing. I used a medium weight interfacing on both sides of the cover. This gives the cover a little stiffness and also makes the stretchy velvet much easier to sew. The last piece for the cover is a bit of lightweight cotton batting, like you would use to make a quilt. This helps give the cover a bit of thickness.

Assemble the cover the same way that you assembled the inside pages. Put the right sides of the cover together, then place the batting on top of the covers. Stitch 1/4 inch seams on all 4 sides, leaving that 2 inches in the middle of a short side so that you can turn the piece. I didn't trim the seams or cut the edges on the cover since I was going for a bulkier look.

Turn the piece right side out. Although I machine stitched the open edge on the inside pages, I hand stitched the opening on the cover. Before I did that though, I trimmed a bit of the batting away from the open edge to make the seam easier to turn and stitch.

Before finishing the cover "hardware", I stitched the cover to the inside pages. I pinned the pieces together, folding the book to make sure of the center. I wanted to go through all of the pieces to keep everything aligned properly, but I didn't want the stitches to show all over my embroidery, so I used strong monofilament.

Buttercup is very fond of Velcro, so the book is held closed by two Velcro "hinges". I started by cutting a two inch wide piece of gold fabric. I turned the sides in and pressed them so that I had a long one-inch-wide strip. I also brought the ends in and pressed them to form points.

I stitched close to the edge to hold everything in place and then placed them on the book to figure out how long I wanted each of the strips to be. Once I was happy with the length, I hemmed the end of the strip.

Velcro comes in lots of colors. I happened to have black on hand, so that's what I used. I cut Velcro for each hinge and sewed the fuzzy side to the hinge strip before attaching the strips to the book.

I pinned the strips to the back cover of the book and used the sewing machine to stitch them in place. I used yellow for my top thread and brown for my bobbin thread so that the stitches blend with the fabric.

With the straps sewn in place, I pinned the prickly side of the Velcro into place and stitched it down.

Finally, I embroider a title decoration for the cover. This isn't anything fancy and I'm considering changing it if I have time before Halloween.

Some ideas that came to me that would have taken more time than I had to spend: Spine decorations, book plates, and a sewn-in-place book ribbon. I would have loved to have done a contrasting piece that added ribs to the spine, but my madness for details can only extend so far with deadlines looming. 30 more days to go!